684 Squadron Mosquito Mk 16

[lyric1]

That photo is of NS581, so presumably NS157 was shot down, transferred or retired and the squadron letter Q reassigned to it. The scheme appears to be US Jet black undersides with RAF PRU blue above. A couple of odd things I noticed; the upper nose and cowlings appear to be PRU blue but I can't see that colour on on the upper rear fuselage. Also the rudder looks to have been painted olive drab.

I can see blue on the leading edge of the horizontal stab on the tail. Also a small dot of blue on the fuselage just under the rudder.

[Greebo]

I think the lighter colour on the leading edge of the vertical tail is just the reflection of the dawn/dusk sun in the glossy black paint. You can see the same reflections on the spinners and drop tanks. I agree the blue spot above the horizontal tail is PRU blue, but this is likely an extension of a PRU blue painted upper horizontal tail. I was just wondering if the upper rear fuselage between the wing and tail was painted black or PRU blue.

[Scherf]

That photo is of NS581, so presumably NS157 was shot down, transferred or retired and the squadron letter Q reassigned to it. The scheme appears to be US Jet black undersides with RAF PRU blue above. A couple of odd things I noticed; the upper nose and cowlings appear to be PRU blue but I can't see that colour on on the upper rear fuselage. Also the rudder looks to have been painted olive drab.

Good catch on the serial, though I think the order of events would have been the other way round, as NS581 came off the production lines around the middle of July 1944, RG157 not until near the end of March 1945. I've made reference to Thomas Ensminger's Carpetbaggers site elsewhere on the boards - he lists all the sorties the unit flew, and they didn't actually use Mossies operationally until mid-March '45. RG157 Q is listed three times, 23/24 April 1945, 28/29 April 1945 and 29/30 April 1945. The first of those sorties was 6 1/2 hours! The other two were staged through Dijon. I assume they were "Joan-Eleanor" sorties to pick up radio messages from agents, though Norman Malayney's book may have more info.

[Greebo]

Thanks for the info Scherf. I may skin one of these part-black Mossies at some point, its a different enough scheme to the day USAAF one I have already done.